Happily Never After
Charming #2
By Jack Heckel
Author’s Website: http://www.jackheckel.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Synopsis:
Once upon, once again…
The dragon has been slain, but the problems have just begun for Prince Charming.
Disowned by his father, the King, and abandoned by his only friend, William Pickett, Charming must find a new path in life…but he’s going to need a lot of help. His love, Liz, barely survived an assassination attempt; his former fling, Rapunzel, is in danger; and William is under an evil spell cast by Princess Gwendolyn.
The fate of Castle White hangs in the balance as Charming tries to find himself, while finding new allies along the way — including an odd number of dwarfs (or is it dwarves?) and a reformed beast. But he’s running out of time to stop royally ruinous wedding bells from ringing…
Review:
Now, I am a person who loves puns and plays on words….and I got this in spades with this read. I chuckled quite a few times while reading (and had stares from my fellow bus riders 🙂 – but that was okay).
An example which I obviously feel is necessary to qoute – who doesn’t remember these childhood rhymes (Humpty Dumpty and 3 Blind Mice, if I am not mistaken):
“What a laugh, thought Charming. All my father’s horses and all of his men couldn’t keep me from those tarts. They are like blind cats sitting before a blank wall thinking it’s a mouse hole.”
And then there are passages like the following which portray the flavor of the story completely – those darn dwarf’s can be SO baffling….and entertaining:
“Wait a minute, I’ve heard of you. You’re dwarfs! Or is it dwarves? Both words sounded wrong to her”…..…”Actually, said the white-haired dwarf on the stool in a pedantic tone, the etymology of the plural of dwarf has been the subject of debate for some time. Of course, a morphologist would tell you that words ending in a fricative should be pluralized by the simple addition of an ‘s’. Therefore, dwarf would be dwarfs.”
And if you enjoy parodies (Movie examples: High Anxiety– Mel Brooks’ satire of Alfred Hitchcock‘s films, Blazing Saddles– Satirical Western. Space Balls– Satire of Star Wars, Young Frankenstein– Must-watch parody of the Frankenstein novel/movie, or Naked Gun series- A bit more on the lowbrow series, parodies of James Bond-style movies AND book examples: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; Fifty Shames of Earl Grey; The Hunger Pains: A Parody to name but a few) you will undoubtedly enjoy this read.
I must say, a perfectly delightful twist on many fairy tales which kept me reading carefully so as to not miss any nuances and puns. And of course as with every fairy tale…. a happy ending or two? This I leave for you to read and determine if the various outcomes are happy or not!
